The greatest secret to writing an amazing novel.
Having the ability to feel and express it using the five senses. making it real.
So you want to get a book published and don’t want to waste your time getting rejected by literary agents and publishers. How can this be done? Well, give them what they want and positive things will happen.
Sounds simple enough, but the question is, want do literary agents “want”? what do readers want? All writers know if you give them what they want and they will always come back for more. But what is the secret? It seems there are some writers who no matter what they write get published and sell millions. What are they doing differently? Do they know “the secret?” We have to look into their secrets of success.
in this blog, we will look at the greatest secret to writing an amazing novel...
THE GREATEST SECRET TO WRITING AN AMAZING NOVEL
Table of Contents
Here’s what you need to know. Great writers become their characters when they’re writing. What does this mean? Some of the greatest writers enter a different world when they sit down to write. They are no longer sitting in front of their laptops writing words that appear on a screen.
They enter the novel, becoming it. The world they’re writing becomes alive in their mind. All the characters are real. They can see everything and everyone clearly. Feeling every emotion the characters feel. No matter if the emotion is happiness, anger, fear or sadness.
USING THE 5 SENSES
Because of this, they can describe everything in rich detail using the 5 senses. Not just the location but what the characters are feeling. What they’re thinking, how they’re reacting. Anyone reading it will feel it as well. The reader will be pulled into the story as though it’s real. By the time they’ve finished reading, they will have felt all the emotions the characters have felt. Taken to another world.
However, an amateur writer will feel nothing while writing. Focusing on character arcs, theme, sentence structure, but at no point “becoming” the characters within a novel. Not feeling anything the characters feel.
YOU HAVE TO FEEL IT FIRST
This leads the story to feel weak, emotionless. The reader has nothing to “become.” They read the story and understand what’s happening, but they do not “feel” what the characters are feeling. In order to truly capture what the characters are feeling the writer has to feel it first. No matter how powerful the emotion the writer has to feel it to capture it for the reader to feel it later.
A writer has the ability to become their character. They see through the character’s eyes and live their life. Giving them depth your average new writer cannot.
CAN YOU GO THERE?
Now comes the big question all new writers have to ask themselves, “can you go there?” It’s not easy to write difficult scenes. In order to write a powerful scene as a writer, you have to feel what the characters feel and see what they see. Then write it down in a way the reader will feel, not just “understand” But to truly feel. This is not easy.
This leads to the biggest problem for new writers. most are afraid to “go there.” They cannot let themselves feel such powerful emotions. They fail to explain what is happening to the characters because as a writer they cannot “feel” what the characters are feeling. Leading to scenes “underwritten.” Leaving the reader to feel “nothing.” The reader cannot experience the power of the scene.
ALLOW YOURSELF TO FEEL THE EMOTIONS
This is a scary thing for most new writers. To allow yourself to feel powerful emotions of sadness or fear or rage while writing. Fear holds back new writers from becoming great. They love the idea of writing but cannot cross the line into being a great writer. Someone who can feel while writing.
Most new writers say “they cannot find the words to express what they want.” The truth is they cannot let themselves “feel.” They cannot feel the powerful emotions needed. If they did they could find the right words to create the scene.
IT MIGHT FEEL SILLY AT FIRST
As a writer, you need to feel. You need to let yourself feel in order to capture it in words. It might feel silly as a writer feeling anger or sadness while you’re sitting in a chair looking at a laptop writing, but this needs to be done.
Just like how an animator of cartoons needs to fully understand facial expressions. They will have a mirror next to them while drawing. If they need to draw a character angry or sad they will make the expression themselves into a mirror. They might feel silly doing this at first, but it makes a difference. Just like how “feeling” while writing works, even though it feels silly.
YOU’RE TAUGHT SHOW DON’T TELL
All writers are taught “show don’t tell.” You are taught never to tell the reader what is happening. this leads the reader to feel nothing. All writers know showing is more powerful. Let the reader experience the scene in their own mind. Let the reader enter the novel, become it. Feel everything. By telling them what is happening makes it feel like they’re reading a newspaper.
Every time someone reads your book they want to be taken into another world. They want your book to be their travel guide. They want to see another world. Wanting to experience something they will never get the chance to. Every time someone picks up your book their cheering for you. They want to believe in you.
THEY WANT TO EXPLORE YOUR WORLD
This is why so many people read science fiction. They want to explore the universe but know they never will so they live through the books. They want the books to be filled with rich detail. Wanting to be pulled into the book as though magic is happening. They want to feel what the characters are feeling.
People read James Bond novels because they want to feel what it’s like to be a spy in danger without risking their own life. They want to feel what James Bond feels. Not be told what James is doing, but feel as well. Reading a Stephen King novel is like trying out VR goggles. You feel as though you’re in his world. you see what he’s writing. Giving you just enough details for you to see the book as though it were alive.
THIS IS YOUR GOAL TO AIM FOR
You can be so lost in one of his books to a point where someone calls you. And they have to call a few times to get your attention. You blink and look around your room not knowing where you are. You were so pulled into his world. As a new writer, you want to aim for this.
Look at movie stars who have to cry on camera. This is not easy. they are on set, surrounded by crew members, under bright lights, in front of a camera. But they have to bring the scene to life in order for people watching to be affected. Like a writer who has to feel in order to write effectively, actors have to feel in front of a camera. They cannot fake it or it will obvious.
YOU HAVE TO FEEL THE SCENE
Just like an actor you as a writer have to “go there” to become the emotion, feel the scene. But the big question is, can you? the best writers can. It takes time to learn. Picture famous actors in your mind as you write. Place yourself into the story. A new writer you can either write about one of two things. The world the novel takes place in or the characters in the world.
New writers tend to focus only on the world. They describe the location and setting. Ignoring the characters, making them lifeless. Leaving the reader to feel empty as they read. But the reader wants to see through the character’s eyes looking out into the new world.
WE HAVE TO SEE THROUGH THEIR EYES
Stephen King lets us see the world through the character’s eyes. We feel what they feel. The story happens to them as we become the character. So we feel the story is happening to us. The evil villain is not attacking the protagonist, it’s attacking us. He gives us the small details that gives a scene life. He does not say “car”, he says “68 Mustang”. he does not say “smokes a cigarette”, it’s “lights up a Malboro”. It’s the little details we connect with.
If he writes a novel onboard a submarine he doesn’t give us long-drawn-out details on the submarine, as though reading a manual. He lets us live through the lead character, feeling what they feel while on board.
THIS STORY IS HAPPENING TO US
He will create other characters on board who could be nice, rude, racist, evil, or kind. The protagonist now has to interact with these people in a good or bad way. But the whole time we feel it’s us on board having to deal with the other characters. The reader does not feel safe while reading. The story is not happening to “someone else” it’s happening to us.
The lead character is not a superhero with powers. Stephen King will write him as an ordinary person. Someone from a small town. Someone the reader can identify with. If this “ordinary” protagonist has to deal with a racist man he cannot solve the problem with superpowers. He has to be a mortal. He might make the right choices or bad. Leaving us to turn the page, wanting to know what will happen next. This draws us closer to the lead character.
IT’S NOT ABOUT LOCATION AND SETTING
Stephen King will write about emotion. What the protagonist is thinking or feeling. Not focusing on the long description of the location.
As a new writer, you have to be aware it’s not just about location and setting that sells a novel. What really sells is inner emotion, fear, anger, regret, happiness. What the characters are thinking. How they react to something in an honest way. The reader wants to experience those things.
HE ZOOMS ON THE CHARACTERS
We want to live inside the character’s mind as they feel the emotions. When you read Stephen King’s “Misery” you are not being told what’s happening to Paul Sheldon. You are experiencing it. Feeling his emotion. Stephen King paints a picture by zooming in. Not just hovering above and telling us what’s happening. He zooms in and lets us feel the fear.
In Stephen King’s “The Mist” you’re not reading a story about “monsters in the mist”. You’re reading about a father and son trapped in a grocery store with horrible monsters in the mist. The focus is on character, how the people within the grocery store act to the threat and each other.
WE CONNECT WITH THEM
A new writer would’ve focused on the “monsters in the mist” while making the characters 2 dimensional and lifeless. Leaving the reader feeling bored. But Stephen King pulls you into the grocery store where you feel trapped inside, afraid to go outside. As though the story is happening to you.
The story is about a father trying to save his son from a deranged mob. We connect with the character’s emotions. You feel afraid for the son, you feel you’re in the store.
YOU CAN FEEL A DISTANCE IN THE NOVEL
In Stephen King’s “Graveyard Shift” you can’t help but feel the rats are coming after you. As you read you feel as though you are pulled into the story. You are not safe. You don’t feel this is a story happening to the lead character, you feel as though you are the main character.
Stephen King pulls you into the lead character’s mind. you feel what they feel and know what they’re thinking. In other novels, you are told what’s happening. You feel a distance between yourself and the lead character. As though you’re safe the entire time you read. But with Stephen King, he pulls you into the scary world using all 5 senses where you don’t feel safe even though it’s a novel.
EVERYONE LIVES IN TWO WORLDS
His secret is not a surprising one. He makes everything about character and real emotions. The inner thoughts we all have. The complex mind. Everyone has deep inner thoughts we only keep to ourselves, an inner world. Most writers never tap into this, but Stephen King does. Everyone lives in 2 worlds, the real world and the world in our heads. We live in our heads 24 hours a day. Having thoughts and opinions on everything. Who we are is shaped by our childhood.
Most writers do not give insight into the lead characters’ inner thoughts and inner world. How it relates to the real world. How they act around other people. What they are feeling, thinking about the future, remembering the past. How they fit into the present. Stephen King grounds his stories in the moment. You feel what they feel. His characters are not perfect, so we relate. They try to do the best they can and doubt themselves.
ALWAYS REMEMBER THE GOLDEN RULE
As a writer, you must always remember the golden rule. Whenever someone reads a novel they put themselves into the lead protagonist’s mind. The reader daydreams the novel is happening to them. Stephen King has the protagonist deal with a problem head-on. Not having the problem happen around them, but having the problem happen to them. No matter how scary the threat. A vampire is not attacking the protagonist, it’s attacking the reader. Causing the reader to feel fear. making them want to stop reading, but they go on.
As a writer, if you can make the reader “feel” they will read on, no matter what emotion. If you make them feel fear, anger, happiness they will read on. The reader stops when they feel nothing. The reader enjoys feeling while reading. That’s what makes them read a book to start with.
YOU WANT TO PULL THE READER INTO YOUR NOVEL
Your job as a writer is to pull the reader into your novel. To create a new world. But in order to do that, you have to feel and transfer what you feel onto the page using the 5 senses.
We don’t ask “how is the protagonist going to get out of this problem?” we ask “how am I going to get out of this problem?” leading to the feeling of suspense. Making the reader turn the page.
IN ORDER TO BRING THE SCENE TO LIFE
“Feeling” as a writer is not easy. Feeling emotions we would rather not feel is preferred. No one wants to make themselves feel bad or sad but great writers know to “go there” for the sake of their novel. Knowing that if they do “feel” they can capture the feeling with words that will let the reader feel. Leaving the reader to connect with the story and read it many times over. And read other books written by the same author.
As a writer, you have to know how to “go there” in order to create a wonderful scene and story that readers will love.
you might be interested in these blogs…
SEEING THINGS THROUGH A LITERARY AGENT’S EYES
THE BENEFITS OF SPEECH TO TEXT AS A WRITER
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